Mumbai: Jailed builder and family booked for flat-out big fraud in Mira Road

Months after builder Amit Palshetkar was sentenced to jail for not giving possession of homes in his Sai Akruti Empire project in Mira Road on time, more buyers have come forward against him, alleging he’s cheated them, too. However, no new arrests have been made yet.

The FIR was filed on April 28, against Amit and his family members Abhishek and Aniket at the Navghar police station. Following multiple complaints from investors and buyers against the builder for fraud and cheating, they have been charged under section 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 34 (common intention). Among the things they’ve been accused of are not delivering flats on time and making multiple registrations on single flats. The cops also put up a board on May 1 asking people who had purchased or invested in the project to come forward with documents if they’ve been cheated by Amit.

Organised crime
In a front-page report on August 16, 2017 mid-day reported Amit’s arrest. The complainant in the case was retired station master Chandraprakash Singh, who’d booked two flats in the project. Speaking to mid-day, Singh’s advocate Mukesh Sharma said, “It is a big fraud and an organised crime, because apart from delaying the project, the builder had knowingly done multiple registrations on single flats. Amit had done double and triple registrations on 35 flats and shops and cheated hundreds.”

“These are organised crimes done by him and more than 10 others. It is appropriate to apply MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act). We had also given complaints eight months ago for the same,” he added.

‘Can’t add MCOCA’
Speaking to media, additional superintendent of police (Thane rural), Prashant Kadam said, “This is a case of cheating, so we can’t impose MCOCA. However, after further investigation, we could seize the property of the builder. Since it is a cheating case, the punishment will be up to seven years. In such cases, we generally arrest the accused after the investigation. As per my knowledge, one of the accused is already behind bars. I will check on the further development in this case.”